According to local media reports Malaysian police have broken a baby-selling racket in southern Johor state, seizing four infants and detaining 23 people including a doctor and a government registrar. The New Straits Times said the syndicate bought babies from poor women who were talked out of having abortions, and then sold them to childless couples. It said police were investigating how many children were sold, and whether any went to Singaporean couples. In raids conducted on Thursday on houses in Johor, which lies next to Singapore, authorities found four babies aged between seven months and one year, and detained four couples who had bought children, it said. Childless couples paid up to 20,000 ringgit ($6,455) for the babies, depending on their race, while the birth mothers were paid as little as 700 ringgit but given free healthcare and accommodation during their pregnancy, it said. The report said that among those detained were a doctor and the staff of his clinic, as well as a